(MC POV)
The journey back was peaceful like before, and I was currently teaching Chuyan why elemental techniques and elemental magic are two different things.
You see, techniques are just like what that phoenix elder used back at the annual sect meeting. It's like a martial arts move that can be taught and has certain cast times, hand placements, and the amount of elemental energy to be put inside the move.
In summary, it's like a special move, while elemental magic is not a technique but just depends on your imagination; even though you can learn it, it does not really need some special move or cast time or some conditions that have to be met before you are able to use them.
"What about cultivation then? Master said that we only need to increase our mastery of the elements and elemental mastery, but I heard mother say she needed to cultivate before." She asked, looking at me with glowing eyes.
I could not help but pat her head when I saw them.
"Well, cultivation is actually increasing our elemental energy storage; That is what we call a core. we don't have a ranking for that since it can't be easily measured, because some people can have their core the same size all the way till they become masters. that is why some masters are more powerful than others, since their cores can allow them to use more techniques and not worry about it running out of elemental energy." Calmly explaining to her as I stroked her head was actually pretty nice.
"Increasing your elemental core is the dream of every practitioner since when you get to the grandmaster rank and your core changes to that of a spiral mist, you will become one with nature and can then ascend to the heavenly realm, but there is a catch," I said.
"What catch?" Chuyan asked eagerly.
Seeing her face that showed she was listening attentively, I could not help laughing as I spoke.
"Well, your elemental core has to be a certain size that the heavenly realm considers ready for ascension, but sometimes that is not actually true."
"Why?"
"Well, more than ten thousand years ago, a grandmaster-ranked practitioner ascended to the heavenly realm, but the thing was that he could only cast one technique or magic move before his elemental energy was depleted, showing that he had a small core," I said with a laugh.
I remember that in my first life, my first master used that story of that practitioner as a way to tell his students that sometimes the heavens themselves can play a joke on you, but how well you receive that joke depends on your will to survive.
Even when that practitioner had such a small core, he was still able to ascend.
"For him to have ascended with such a core, that means his will was very strong," Chuyan mused after she also let out a laugh.
Did I ever say that this disciple of mine is a genius? I haven't, right? Well, she is a genius; to understand what I was trying to tell her right away is very amazing.
I then taught her some techniques and some other kinds of elemental magic with hopes of increasing her arsenal.
"Master Zen, we are here," The disciple said, opening the partition slightly.
I patted Chuyan, who was asleep on my lap, to get up as I made my way outside. It has been a week now, and we are now back to Guming village, or what was left of it, since the trees had practically overtaken the whole village, and some of them turned to bloodthirsty dryads.
With the illusion I had set in place, I doubt if anyone could have gotten in, but just in case, I had Chuyan and the disciple stay outside to stand as guards.
Waving my hands and using my wood magic to part the trees, I walked in. The whole place looked like a scene from a dream, as just in one week, the whole place had become a whole new ecosystem as the trees towered over me, blocking out the sun, but luckily the place was still illuminated by the little sunlight that came in.
It took me close to twenty minutes of walking before I saw what used to be a wooden house now had been turned into a tree, and I knew I was already there.
ROAR!
Before I could even start looking around, one of the trees attacked me—yes, a tree. It was about three meters tall, and its branches were about seven inches wide as they swiped down, ready to hit me.
I created a simple wooden shield with the vines around, of course leaving some gaps that allowed me to see its movements after having its attack blocked by the shield. I narrowed my eyes and used my space magic to teleport out of my wooden shield; luckily, I was quick enough, or I would have been turned into a voodoo doll by my own shield. I saw how the inside of the shield had grown spikes inside from the vines.
I sensed movement below me, and I used air magic to lift myself into the air, but it seemed that it was not enough, as the vine followed me into the air, trying to wrap around either me or my leg. Using some air techniques, I created several wind blades that cut the vine.
Quickly raising an air shield, I blocked another attack from another tree that had somehow sneaked up on me without me noticing. Since they had the same signature as the normal trees around, I was finding it hard to detect them.
I decided to head deeper into the forest in hopes of at least getting these treants off my back.
After some minutes of evasions, counterattacks, and surprise attacks from other treants, I was able to make it to where I had dropped the elemental stone before and saw a sight that left me speechless.
The treants, who I believed were the village dryads who had somehow evolved into treants, all gathered around the elemental stones. I remember that the stones were a mix of other elemental stones, but now the stones were entirely green and seemed to be breathing.
Not actually breathing, but the stones were moving up and down like a sleeping beast was inside or a heart. Not only that, the treants seemed to be giving their life force to the stones, creating a mesmerizing sight.
"So they were not attacking me but rather protecting this, but it seems it's needing something to complete this process."
I muttered as I looked at the stones; Even though it looked beautiful, this process seemed like they were forcing the stones to come alive without first giving them a body.
Boom!
I did not have time to fully observe them as the treants that I had escaped from had arrived, and they did not look happy about me finding their little secret.
Before I knew what happened, I felt a powerful hit on my chest that flung me backward. I did not know if it was intentional or not, but I headed straight in the direction of where the breathing stones were, landing right on top of the pile, looking at the wooden humanoid faces of the treants surrounding it.
I instantly felt my elemental energy being sucked into the pile and felt my movements become a bit sluggish.
Before I could try and get out, I heard something that made me pause my movements.
"Papa?"
I'm sorry, I think I am hallucinating.